Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-07-25
ROTTEN JURlEs.
JUSTICE DEFEATED AND GRIMM
AIS CLEARED FOR COIN.
a Dark Chapter Upon the Condition
OF the Machinery of the Courts
of Sacramento.

4 Dark Chapter Upon the Condition
of the Machinery of the Courts
OF Sacramento.
If the end and aim of the laws OF Eng
land is to get twelve honest men in the
jury box" it is to be hoped the mother
| country has more successfully accom-
| plished the purpose of her legal system
than the law of this country has done for
Sacramento county. We now and then
have an honest jury here, but in criminal
cases, where the stake is worth the fight
ing, it is becoming more and more rare for
panel to be so pure as to rise superior to
suspicion.
1t has long been known that some
jurors in this county have been unsafe
for the people. Ii has long been a
moral conviction that our juries in Grim
inal cases were more often than not
ROTTEN To THE CORE.
But it has not been matter of legal GER
tainty; and hence, even at this time, it
IS next to impossible to so fix
| responsibility as to nail the
ears of delinquent and conniving officials
to the door posts of truth. 1t may not be
possible to do this now, but at least the
facts may be stated upon such a general
plan as to put upon inquiry those whose
duty 1t is to go TO the bottom of the foul
nest, and scourge the uuclean with the
open light of public scorn and loathing.
The notes we give herewith are intended
| to show:
That onfasSad criminals 90 frae
| That the machinery of the law is so used
as TO favor the escape of the guilty rather
| than to secure their conviction.
| That the Judges o. the Courts are power
! less to prevent the outrages.
| That jury lists have been chosen for the
Courts with carelessness, if not with culpa-
BILE neglect.
That there.are classes known as profes-
sional jurymen and professional jury
| brokers.
That jurors put themselves in the way of
being chosen on panels for the express
purpose Of serving criminals instead of the
State.
| That there is sufficient cumulative evil
dence to justify the moral conviction that
| jurors are bribe1 that in drawing Jurors
| frauds may be and are perpetrated that
| behind all this rottenness there is to be
found the chicane of political intrigue. the
greed for place, and the power of bossism OF
various kinds.
THE CASEY CASE.
In this case, the defendant since his trial
makes no denial of having committed the
robbery of the rooms in the Golden Eagle
| Hotel. He seems to enjoy the joke of his
acquittal about as well az any one else who
is acquainted with the facts. He has even
| been so cOnsiderate as TO express his entire
| " IN h 81.
the amount taken from each room bur
| glariaed, so that proper pro rata DISPOSE
ton can be made of the unspent
| funds found in his possession. During his
trial he criticized the testimony of one of
| the victims in his statement of his loss.
and suggested that he had been guilty OF
an exaggeration, as his room had panned
out lesser amount. Some of the Jurors
seem to have been much influenced by
sympathy for his wife; but her own criti-
cism now seems to be that the lawyers had
not enough foresight to divide the money
among them and leave the victims out in
the cold. 1t is matter of bitter humilia-
ton to the prosecuting officers that this
man is permitted to leave the city.
| CARRYING WITH HIM THE INSTRUMENTS OF
HIS CRIME.
Possibly more complete burglars outfit
| V.
and q trial of his KEYS while they remained
in the possession of the authorities in sew
eral locks demonstrated that their con-
| struction was almost perfect.
| The general impression among those who
| are experienced in the detection of crime.
and whose life study has been in that direc-
| ton, is that Casey is member of
q gang of accomplished hotel rob-
bers whose qualifications are extended
over most OF the States in the Union. Ger
tain II is in his case that in three of the
cities OF California the same class of bur
glarleS have been perpetrated during the
time he was in those cities. He seems TO
be fastidlous-selects as victims only men
of prominence. Significantly at Oakland,
during recent political campaign, while
Casey was in town, ex- Cover nors Booth
| and Perkins and others found themselves
poorer in the morning than when they had
retired the night before Bya coincidence.
the Oakland officers suspected Casey of the
crime, and when. during the late State Fair
sn1 before the Golden Eagle burglaries.
detective Holland met Casey at the track,
| he suggested to our officers that If any
rooms in hotels were robbed il would be q
pious idea TO haul Casey up and subject his
effects to an examination. When the rob-
berries occurred that suggestion was acted
upon. Casey was placed under arrest, and
upon examination, his effects revealed The
fact that Holland was right, as
THE TOOLS AND awAG WERE FOUND AMONG
| HIS EFFECTS.
There has probably been no other case
in the history of our criminal jurispru-
dence where such absurd explanations OF
the possession of these implements ofcrime
have been accepted by juries, and that too.
in the face of the testimony of gentlemen
| well known III the community of confes-
sions made by the criminal himself
With some in this community 1t seems
to have been for years the studied effort 10
cast odium on the members of our Police
Department and the Sheriffs office. II
seems remarkable that for several terms
| past the selection by the people of Chief of
| Police has been entirely unsatisfactory to
some who seem to think that gentleman
filling that Office should wear kid gloves.
The most unwaTranted abuse has been
heaped upon that officer by some of the
public press, and bv those whose every eff
fort seems to be to break down the barriers
| to crime and
| FAVOR THE CRIMINAL ELEMENT
AS much as possible. Spectators at all
criminal trials, especially in this county.
are largely of that class that associate with
the criminal element they have fellow
| feeling that makes them wondrous kind, y
and lose no opportunity to discredit the
testimony of officials and suggest the in
nocence of the defendant in the presence
| of jurymen, and this has its effect when
backed by public press. This was very
noticeable in the Casey case. 1t was signif-
icant in this case that men who expressed
their opinion publicly upon the streets.
that while Casey was guilty, his csnvic-
ton would be impossible, and concerted
effort seems to have been successfully made
to educate weak-plinded jurors up to an
adoption of that belief.
THE TRIAL OF THOMAS II. REYNOLDS
| For the ENLIGHTENMENT of MONEYS in the
Secretary of States Office was another
instance of how judicial proceedings can be
manipulated. In that case, it will be
recollected, that the notes of testimony fur
nished to the prosecuting officers BIZ the
Court reporter, and the private notes for
argument made by the District ATTORNEY,
disappeared on separate occasions and never
since have been seen. Such notorious
characters as Big Neck Smith" resident
| Of San Francisco, who, accompanied bv his
| friend Sconchin, drops up here whenever
We have an election, and lends hand
with our local political bulIies in max